adams



7 (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

A. E. ADAMS, W. A. SHEFFIELD & J. HALLAM. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ORNAMENTAL CIRCULAR KNITTED FABRICS.

No. 557,681/ Patented Apr. .7, 1896.

/'/c:,77 FIG. 9. FIG 8.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. A. E. ADAMS, W. A. SHEFFIELD 8; J. HALLAM. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ORNAMENTAL UIRGULAR KNITTED FABRICS.

No. 557,631. Patented Apr. 7, 1896.

FIG 2.

M.PNUTO-LITHD.WASHIN5TON.DC

(No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 3.

A. E. ADAMS, W. A. SHEFFIELD & J. HALLAMJ APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ORNAMENTAL CIRCULAR KNITTED FABRICS. No. 557,631. Patented Apr. 7, 1896.

ANDREW BYGRAHAM,PHOTUUTHO.WASHINGNN,RC.-

iJNiTED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

AXDREYY ELXVORTHY ADAMS, \VILLIAM ALFRED SHEFFIELD, AND JOHN IIALLAM, OF LEICESTER, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ORNAMENTAL ClRCULAR-KNlTTED FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,631, dated April 7, 1896.

Application filed September 24, 1894. Serial No. 523,993. (No model.) Patented in England March 10, 1893, No. 5,190.

To all whom it may concern.

Be itknown that we, ANDREW ELWORTHY ADAMS, XVILLLUI ALFRED SHEFFIELD, and JOHN I'IALLAM, subjects of Her Britannic Maj esty Queen Victoria, residing and carrying on our business at Adelaide buildings, Albion Street, Leicester, in the county of Leicester, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Producing Ornamental Circular Knitted Fabrics, (for which we have obtained a patent in Great Britain, No. 5,190, bearing date March 10, 1893,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for producing ornamental circularknitted fabrics-that is to say, to produce upon circular knitting machines ribbed stripes, fancy plaids, checks, diamonds, mottled stripes, and patterns of diiferent angles without tucking or throwing any loose threads in any part of the work, at the same time producing a solid-knitted fabric.

The principal object of this invention consists in the means of producing the fancy fab rics above mentioned upon a swing-jack machine and the employment of some of the mechanism shown and described in ourBritish Patent )To.19,534c of 138.), and hereinafter described, the apparatus, as a whole, being applicable to any circular knitter or circularknitting machine by making slight alterations. \Ve attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which are shown the appliances and variouspatterned ribbed fabrics and articles produced thereby in accordance with this invention.

F igure 1 shows, partly in section, an elevation of a two-feeder swing-jack knitting-machine with our apparatus attached thereto, the two sets of needles employed carrying different-colored yarns, and when the frameneedles are not knitting the machine-needles intercept and take up the knitting. In consequence of this, and that the needles never take two threads, no loose loops are formed on either side or face of the fabric. Fig. '3

represents the bottom ring or bed of the aforesaid machine and upper view of the jacquard and our apparatus for carrying out this invention. Fig. 3 illustrates in diagram a piece of circular-ribbed knitted web or fabric of a square or check pattern with a mottled ground. Fig. 4 shows a piece of circular web having vertical stripes on a mottled ground, the dotted lines indicating that ordinary fingers and thumb can be attached thereto, and so form gloves. Fig. 5 is another piece of circular web consisting of a one-colorec portion to form, say, the top of a sock or the cuff or gauntlet, and a mottled portion striped with another colored thread to make a glove-hand or leg portion of a sock or the like, the dotted line showing that the leg portion may be extended and heeled and footed in any well-known manner. Fig. 6

. represents an article of tubular hosiery, such as a ribbed shirt, vest, bodice, or other like underwear, or guernsey, footbalLjersey, or other ribbed goods of a similar kind, being articles of overwear; and Figs. 7, S, and 0 show the various cylinder-jacks employed and arranged in the cylinder in any defined manner according to the pattern desired, an example of which is hereinafter explained.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the drawings.

To carry out our invention, we secure to the bed or bottom ring of the machine a bracket A carrying the rack or cam-wheel N, Figs. 1 and 2, and the jacquard or combing apparatus in connection therewith. In conjunction with these appliances we employ a small rack or check wheel 0, having upon its under side two rows of cams or inclines D D, which vary in length according to the width of the pattern it is desired to produce, the wheel 0 being racked by the lever E arranged at the lower end of the vertical spindle 6 carried in the bracket A. A roller 2 is carried in the outer end of said lever E, engaging with the ordinary revolving cam e of the machine. A lever F is attached to the spindle e, to which is linked the pawl G held to the teeth of the wheel C by spring C.

By racking the cam-wheel G the cams D D come in contact with and depress the foot H of the rocking lever V and the foot H of the lever W, and operate the cams w" and 'ZLS, respectively. The said cams are verticallysliding cams which regulate the feet and tails ICC) of, and the longitudinal movement of, the cylinder-needles in carrying out our invention, in the following manner and according to the following description.

For a spot or stripe such as J, Fig. 4, or to cause a break in a check K either at the corners or center of the pattern, as may be required and as the jacquard shall determine, the long-tailed jacks I, Fig. 8, are used, or they may be steel-wire needles of a similar form and having a shunted foot 2" and extended tail i so that they can by this means be brought either into the full or half-way position and independently of the jacks I, Fig. 7, (which are of the ordinary kind,) by the cam in, under the control of lever YV, acting upon the cam Din the wheel a. The cam 20 operates the jacks 1 while the jacks I will be always knitting. Such jacks l have their feet shunted 71, 9, and are arranged in the nicks of the needle-cylinder in such a predetermined manner that they can be op.- erated at any desired point in any course or courses of knitting to produce a square or check pattern in a ribbed mottled fabric to be made up into body-garments, as L, Figs. 3 and 6. The jacks are set in the needlecylinder according to the size and width of the square or the stripe desired. For example, we take two jacks each of I, 1, and I and arrange them successively in the needlecylinder, and use two feeders of different colored yarns. This would produce a check pattern of four needles wide, when by lowering the cam 20 the width of the pattern would be increased to six needles of the color desired and regulated by each feeder.

To produce vertical stripes, the five wales (or more or less) forming the stripe-say blackl and the jacks Pats lowered below the knitting-race M (by depressing the cam in) at the time that they are passing the feeder carrying a different-colored thread Z which thread is not taken up by the vertical needles; but at the next feeder carrying the black thread, then both the machine and frame needles come into the knitting position in as many revolutions or courses as may have been previously determined upon. The shunted-footed jacks take up only the black thread, while the ordinary-footed frame, as well as the machine-jacks, will take up and be knitting the other-colored t h read or threads en1ploye d, a n l i t vgl be understood that the needles only take up one thread at a time. Now, to break such vertical stripe into squares or checks, Figs. 3 and (i, the cam D on the checking-wheel C depresses the tail of the lever XV and raises the cam w, so bringing the jacks I into the same knitting position as the ordinary jacks I, thereby crossing the stripe with a mottled course or courses, such patterns having no loose loops occurring on the inside of the fabric. The machine-needles always make two loops to the frame-needles one, and when plain fabrics are desired of course loose loops will occur in the fabric. 'To carry such arrangements out automatically, the dogs used are set at intervals in the links of a pattern-chain, according to the size of pattern it is desired to make. Such apparatus is operated upon from and by the revolution of the machine in the following manner: The rack-wheel C is controlled by the pivoted lever n, the outer end of which is bent or hooked to catch against the hook end of the pawl G, Fig. 1, to hold said pawl from racking the wheel 0 when the machine is only required to knit the top and welt O of the sections or pieces of web to form or which are afterward cut in lengths and formed into such articles, as exemplified in the drawings which accompany this specification. The inner end of the controlling-lever 02 engages with the inner ring a of the cam-wheel N and is held thereto by the spring 02 The racking of such cam-wheel N is accomplished by the pawl and levers and apparatus shown in Fig. 2 or others of a well-known or similar character. lVhen the inner end of controllinglever '10 falls into a recess off the cams in the cam-ring N, the outer end of such lever releases its hold of the pawl G and allows it to rack the wheel C and so cause, as before stated, the shifting of the needles to make the desired ornamental pattern fabric.

Having now explained the working of such apparatus and ascertained the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, what we desire to secure by Letters Patent and claim is The combination in a knitting-machine of a bracket, a rack, cam-wheel N carried in said bracket; a Jacquard or patterning mechanism in connection therewith, a check-wheel O having on its under side cams D, D varying in length; a lever E on vertical spindle e, lever F, pawl G, spring 0 (for holding and racking check-wheel G), roller e, engaging cam e of the machine in operation and in conjunction with the pivoted lever 01; rocking lever TV, cams 10 20 and jacks I and 1 all for the purpose substantially as described.

ANDRE ELXVORTHY ADAMS. VILLIAM ALFRED SHEFFIELD. JOHN HALLAM.

\Vitnesses:

XVILLIAM NORTON, TILLIAM Janus STEVENSON. 

